Tabbouleh with Persimmons and Almonds and a Knife Giveaway

EDIT:Due to an error with my server, the original version of this post along with all of your comments disappeared! Talk about bad timing!! The only choice I have is to start from the beginning and ask you to please leave a new comment if you wish to enter the the contest for the knife giveaway. All the same rules apply, but I am extending the deadline to allow everyone to catch up to the new development! Thank you, and sorry for the last minute change!

Remember those gorgeous knives from New West KnifeWorks that I gave away last September? It’s happening again! But this time, I have the pleasure of giving away a beautiful 9-inch Chef’s Knife from their Phoenix Line. And although I’m not keeping it, I just had to test this baby out before giving it away to one of you lucky, lucky people.

One of my favorite things to do with a chef’s knife is to chop fresh herbs. To me, it’s very relaxing and satisfying to attack a huge pile of leafy parsley and end up with a much smaller pile of finely chopped herbs. And what better way to get a feel for this knife than some nice, soothing, rhythmic chopping.

This knife is a pleasure to use. Although it’s a pretty big knife, I was surprised at how light and well-balanced it is. The blade is nice and thin but not flimsy by any means. I didn’t chop any onions today, but I know that this blade would be perfect for the job. In fact, like a good chef’s knife should be, this knife feels like it would be up for just about any task in the kitchen.

As you can see, it fits in my hand perfectly, and the handle is very comfortable.

And it’s just as comfortable when I choke up on the handle and grasp the blade between my thumb and forefinger, which is my usual knife grip for chopping. I made it through a pile of parsley and a pile of mint in no time and was ready for more!

From the title of this post, I’m assuming you already know why I was chopping all those herbs! In addition to testing out the knife, I also planned on making some tabbouleh today. But since it’s fall, I decided to try substituting persimmons for the usual tomatoes. So I peeled a couple of persimmons (using a peeler, not the chef’s knife) and chopped those up, too!

Another flawless performance from The Nine. I want this knife. But I guess it probably wouldn’t be right for me to enter my own contest, right?

Now let me tell you a bit more about my Tabbouleh with a Twist, and at the end of the recipe, I’ll fill you in on how this knife giveaway is going to work!

Tabbouleh is a Middle Eastern salad made of bulgar wheat, chopped herbs, spices, tomatoes, lemon juice, and olive oil. I’m sure there are many variations, but the versions I’ve tasted have all seemed pretty standard. I’ve never actually made tabbouleh myself, which is strange considering how much I love to eat it!

Well my version today isn’t exactly traditional. I’m using whole wheat couscous in place of bulgar because that’s what I had in my pantry and because it’s quicker to prepare. I’m also adding sweet persimmons in place of the tomatoes, which take the salad in a completely new direction.

Although I kept the lemon juice and herbs (lots of fresh chopped parsley and mint) in the recipe, I decided to add orange zest, almonds and a dash of cinnamon to complement the persimmons. It might sound a little strange, but it really does work. I just ate a huge bowl of it for lunch and it was delicious!

In addition to tasting great, the dish turned out to be beautiful! The orange persimmons and green herbs turn an ordinary plate of couscous into a gorgeous side dish for your Autumn table.

And perhaps the best part about this salad is that it’s both delicious and super healthy! Whole grains, tons of fresh herbs, fresh fruit, nuts, and olive oil? Your body will love you for it!

1. Bring 3/4 cup of water to boil. Add couscous, stir, cover, and remove from heat. Allow to sit for five minutes, then fluff with a fork. 2. Put couscous in a large mixing bowl, add lemon juice and olive oil, and stir to combine. Allow to cool while you chop the herbs and fruit. 3. Stir in chopped herbs, orange zest, persimmons, and almonds. Mix well then add a dash of cinnamon, and salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Yield: four servings

Recipe notes: Tabbouleh is traditionally made with bulgar wheat, feel free to substitute an equal amount of bulgar but allow to steam for 20 minutes (or follow package directions). Toast the almonds in a small non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Stir constantly and remove from pan when lightly browned (only takes a few minutes). If you are new to using persimmons, please read my earlier post where I explain the difference between fuyu and hachiya persimmons. You really want to make sure you use the correct type!

Now although I’m sure you’re happy to have yet another recipe from me this month (I think this is number 17), I know why you’re still reading this. You’re hoping to win the gorgeous knife from New West Knife Works! So without further ado, here’s how this is going to work.

All you have to do is leave a comment at the bottom of this post telling me your favorite thing to eat during the holidays. I don’t care what holiday you want to discuss, just tell me one thing you look forward to eating each year. That’s it! The winner of the knife will be chosen using a random number generator, so you aren’t being judged on your answers. I’m just curious about what you like to eat!

The rules: Only one comment per person is allowed. Don’t try using several different false names, because I have ways of figuring it out. 😉 Last time there were a few of you who had problems leaving a comment. If for some reason this happens, please e-mail me at pinchmysalt (at) gmail.com with your holiday food answer and I will add the comment for you. Any other questions, please e-mail me.

EDIT: In order to enter the knife giveaway, you need to leave your comment on this post by Friday, Nov. 21 at 5pm PST. I’ll announce the winner on Saturday morning. Good luck!

Now I want to extend a big thank you to New West KnifeWorks for sending me another knife to give away. I have been extremely impressed with the quality of their products and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them. If you haven’t already, go check them out for yourself!

EDIT: The contest has now ended. Comments were closed on Friday, Nov. 21 at 5pm (pst)

Reader Interactions

Comments

I know it sounds lame, but seriously, the turkey really is my favorite part of thanksgiving. Second to that is probably the baked acorn squash with brown sugar, salt and butter… and anything with pumpkin! ;o)

Very Christmas my mother buys all the kids a bag of chocolate covered pretzels by a local PA candy place called Sarris Candies. Normally the nutritional information would keep me from eating more than one, but it’s a once a year treat and I end up plowing through the whole bag before the week is out. YUM. Now you have me counting the days until I get them again!

Sorry about your website problems, but I’m glad your work wasn’t lost forever.

I’m not sure it’s my favorite thing to eat during the holidays, but the one dish that I love and never eat at any other time is cranberry relish. I don’t use it as a condiment–I can eat it by the bowlful. But for some reason I only make it for Thanksgiving.

Sucks about the whole website issue, but kudos on all the hard work of getting it back up!

I love turkey during the holidays!! I don’t really get to eat it for Thanksgiving at home since my family doesn’t really like turkey (we usually eat chicken instead), so when I do get to go to a church Thanksgiving gathering or something, I always love eating the turkey! And the stuffing. Yummy.

My favorite Thanksgiving food is…homemade Chex Mix! We always knew it was close to Thanksgiving when we came in and there, on the table, were the trays of Chex Mix cooling. If you were good and sneaky, you could snag some of the fresh pieces with lots of butter/w-sauce on them…yum.

It’s a toss up between the cranberry sauces (I usually make two kinds) and my aunt’s green beans, but I think I’ll have to go with the beans. We love green beans in our house, and we have them often steamed and tossed with balsamic vinegar. On Thanksgiving and/or Christmas, however, my aunt makes green beans cooked Southern-style (within an inch of their lives along with a ham hock). Heaven! I wouldn’t eat them any other time of year, but they are a holiday must.

I always look forward to making (and EATING!) my grandmother’s sausage stuffing around Thanksgiving/Christmas. It’s nothing fancy but it’s definitely the one dish that reminds me of her. It just wouldn’t be the holidays without it.

I always looked forward to swedish meatballs during christmas (almost made up for the lutefisk). My mom used to make them, the smell of allspice filling the house. Then Ikea showed up, and my mom started buying them frozen. I managed to make them from scratch only a couple of times since then. Now that I have kids of my own I find myself sifting through traditions from both of my parents (filipino and minisota-swede), and swedish meatballs over christmas is definitly something I want them to experience and continue (unlike lutefisk).

Well, of course I’ll enter again, because that knife is Teh Awesome. When I was young, my mom would make me a special birthday cake every year; it was orange flavored, with *very* lemony buttercream frosting, and she would put unsweetened apricot pie filling in between the two layers. I managed to persuade my husband to make me one of these this last birthday, and think I will have him do it this year, too.

I am looking forward to a Christmas Sausage, a Bavarian veal sausage with a special spice mix only sold around Christmas and only in the area I grew up. Goes with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes and has always been our Christmas eve dinner.

This was a wonderful adventure reading everyone’s favorites from the holidays. Mine is still plain cranberry sauce (boiled cranberries, sugar and water) served with turkey. However, I am now thinking a meal complete with all the favorites I just read about would leave me one happy person!

Hands down, my favorite is the from-the-cans green bean casserole. The only thing I do to fancy it up is adding bug chunks of sauteed mushrooms…mmmmm. I had my sister email me a list of what she’s planning on making (yay for siblings in culinary school, she might actually be more excited about Thanksgiving than I am), and I’ll be drooling in anticipation until next Thursday.

My Ma’s gravy on just about anything is my favorite. I’m going to try your recipe for extra creamy mashed potatoes this year to compliment said gravy. (My Ma always mixes her peas or corn in with her mashed potatoes, so your picture with peas on top of mashed potatoes and gravy seemed normal to me!) Nice work getting your site back up!

I’ve never been big on the traditional holiday feasts. Don’t get me wrong, I make a mean and to die for turkey and all the trimmings, and can deal with a large ham the old fashioned way studded with cloves and thick with maple glaze, but my favourite holiday meal is————LABOUR DAY! Here in my area Labour Day means Sockeye Salmon hours out of the river ( as long as there’s an opening on the Fraser River) barbequed in filet form with salt, pepper, lemon juice, a rub of garlic, and a sprinkle of dill. The accompanying cesar salad and cob of corn- Nothing to compare this to. I wish it was summer now!!!!

Well, here in France we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving as such. But my favorite dish, eaten at my grandparents house each year during the first meal everbyody could share was pot-au-feu. Warmth, reunion, love… that’s what this dish means for me!

First time poster long time watcher. When I was 14 I entered Cranberry Squares in the county fair and won best of so. Im not huge on sweets so I love the tartness and wonderfull flavor of cranberrys. The recipe as a small about of sugar and walnuts….I just love walnuts. I love your wonderful blog keep up the great work, and that knife looks amazing!

Hey, sorry to hear about your blog troubles today Nicole! We don’t have a Thanksgiving holiday here in NZ, however my favourite celebration food in cooler months would have to be creamy mashed potatoes/roast potatoes, (any roasted root veges actually!) stuffing and gravy with a roast lamb/chicken or pork… and apple pie with custard and vanilla ice cream! Simple basics…oooh but oh so good when done well! and yes I’m keen a that knife too!

We lookforward to this meal all year and christmas eve is normaly the only time we eat this dish. Pinnekjøtt (literally “stick meat”) is a traditional Christmas dish in the western parts of Norway. Pinnekjøtt is salted, dried and sometimes smoked lamb’s ribs which are rehydrated, usually 12-24 hours in pure water and then steamed, usually, but not necessarily, over birch branches, and served with potato and mashed rutabaga. Traditionally, beer and akevitt are served with pinnekjøtt. It is unclear if the dish originally got its name “stick meat” from the birch sticks used in the steaming process, or because of the visual nature of the individual rib bones. However, it is common to call the individual ribs “pinner” (“sticks”), so that is perhaps the most obvious interpretation.

I’ve really been enjoying your recipes as a subscriber. Can’t wait to try the apple & bacon dressing as well as those buttermilk cranberry scones. For the holidays, I’ve always enjoy pumpkin pie. Though I cook with pumpkin throughout the year, for some unknown reason the pie is reserved for Thanksgiving. My sister has mastered (almost) my mom’s recipe – that’s a delight.

Thanks for sharing your culinary treasures with us & for enter me into your knife giveaway.

So, I was going to leave another comment anyway, because I made the tabbouleh last night for dinner! I went even further astray from bulgar wheat, using red quinoa, which was very pretty with the orange persimmon, and the texture was fantastic. However, I’m sorry to say I just couldn’t get into it, the sweet persimmon was too sweet for me with the parsley and other savories. Maybe my fruit were extra sweet? Anyway, thanks for inspiring me to use persimmon for the first time!

Well done! Site looks great again. Okay, I still love to celebrate Fourth of July with blueberry pie. For breakfast. Complete with vanilla ice cream. Berries picked by us at a farm down the road from my mother’s house… yum.

Wow, that looks wonderful. My favorite holiday food is my dad’s giblet stuffing. I’m not a big fan of organ meats, but pulverized and poured over croutons it just becomes wonderful. I’ve asked him for his recipe for at least the last eight years straight, hopefully this will be the year I write it down.

For me, it’s not so much the food I look forward to at holiday gatherings. It’s the company. I love being with my family!! But if I had to pick a food (or two) it would be leftover turkey sandwiches with stuffing and cran!!!!

Thanksgiving is a real challenge here in France, because there are NO traditions. So, I try to make dishes that help my French family understand why Thanksgiving is so much fun. My favorite, because it freaks the French out, is cranberry compote with turkey. You’d think they’d be used to fruit and meat together, but NO! It’s always a surprise for them.

By far, my favorite thing to eat all fall (with star-quality dishes at Thanksgiving and Christmas) is sweet potatoes. They’re so delicious, and I can’t walk by the display at the grocery store without buying them. Surprisingly, I’m not a fan of the super sugary sweet potato casserole with marshmallow topping – I prefer savory sweet potato preparations. Loved your sweet potato biscuits with bacon and thyme!

My favorite fall/holiday season food is the sweet potatoes. It doesn’t matter how they’re prepared, they are good. A close second place is the cranberry dishes that are popular during the holiday season. I sure do like a good cranberry salad with turkey dinner.

One of my favorite dishes at Thanksgiving is my Great Grandmother’s Cornbread Dressing. It makes so much that we’ll eat it for a few days after the big meal. Of course, since my birthday is just before Thanksgiving (and we live away from family) we have birthday cake on Thanksgiving now and that’s another one of my favoirtes.

I’d have to say my mom’s brined turkey for Thanksgiving. We stuff ourselves with it on the big day, and then eat it on sandwiches until it’s gone. I’m looking forward to trying your ‘B.L.A.T.’ with it this year. BTW, the sourdough stuffing looks awesome.

I’ll have to try your knife grip. I have small hands so I often feel like the blade is heavy for me.

I would have to say that my MILs sausage stuffing is the BEST! I love picking off the pieces of sausage that are on top and all brown and crispy….and that isn’t even on MY piece…I sneak into her kitchen and pick it off all over so everyone is ready to kill me, lol! 😛

Oh good another knife compitition, I can’t belive I missed the last one!

At home stuffing is a major part of christmas dinner, we always have chestnut and pork stuffing, lemon and thyme and sage and onion with rasins in it… seriously I could eat that homemade stuffing and cranberry sauce all day with nothing else :0)

Glad you got the email thing figured out! My favorite holiday food was the Christmas bread my mom would make Christmas morning. It made the whole house smell delicious! Now that she is gone, I miss it more than ever!

I look forward to sweet potato casserole every Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s sweet potato puree with a delicious brown sugar and pecan crispy topping-this beats old sweet potatoes and marshmallows any day! It usually doesn’t last for leftovers but if it does, I’ll eat it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!

For me, the best part of the Thanksgiving meal is the leftover turkey sandwiches that follow the main event. The must have turkey, mayo, sliced pickles and a sprinkling of salt. Anything else is optional. I think I look forward to these more than the big meal with all the trimmings.

My favorite part of Thanksgiving, more than any particular dish, is planning the meal. I get giddy looking through recipes and considering menu themes. I’m a food geek, but it’s what makes the holidays fun.

Yuck – sorry about the website problems. What a headache. I had commented earlier about a fennel gratin that I learned from a chef in Italy. I only make it once a year due to the amount of effort required for such a humble dish. Humble, but delicious. The knife looks amazing!

My favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal has to be the stuffing/dressing and giblet gravy… The turkey is only necessary for the giblets 🙂 . This is my first comment so I must thank you for the blog, I love the recipes. I have been following it for several months, since before your return to the states. Thanks!

I always look forward to Egg Nog during the winter and the fourth of July for a midwest barbecue. Glad you got your posts back up, there’s several I’m looking forward to trying and I may just have some new favorites!

Mmmmmmmmm…Thanksgiving food..my favorite, but I don’t have one..it’s ALL of it. I love it the melding of flavors: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy..mmmmmm…and the post Thanksgiving Day dishes..hot opened faced turkey sandwiches..made with white bread..*gasp*..I know..but it’s not the same otherwise!

Glad to see you were able to put the post back up! What a pain that must have been. Anyhow, my favorite holiday food is my mom’s handmade pastries, complete with a dollop of homemade jam and drizzle of frosting. Warm out the oven, they’re deadly delicious.

back again. My great-grandmother used to make something called “Cottage Cheese Bread”. Essentially a sweet bread with cottage cheese integrated on top. Even though she doesn’t make this anymore, she gave me the family recipe to continue on.

My Christmas memories from childhood are all about homemade cookies, fruit cake and pfeffernuesse – but after living in Venezuela for 30 some years the turkey is always accompanied by hallacas, pan de jamón (ham bread) and ensalada de gallina (potato, chicken salad)

Thanksgiving wouldn’t be the same without Sally’s homemade yeast rolls! And sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I have to make a big pot of homemade wassil. It takes fantastic and it makes the whole house smell wonderful!

I love anything pumpkin (i.e. whole wheat pumpkin muffins, whole wheat pumpkin pancakes, white chip pumpkin cake, pumpkin cookies). I also love southern hen and dressing with giblet gravy and cranberry sauce shaken out of the can (if I can get my mouth on some made by my sister). YUM!! I don’t know how to make it, and I don’t care to learn. It’s such a treat to have it every blue moon.

My favorite holiday dish is stuffing! It’s so easy that I should/could make it more often, but it only seems appropriate to me around Thanksgiving. The more “things” I can throw into the mix, the better!

I love it all but my Great-Grandmother’s Apple Salad is what pulls together all of the rest of the holidy meal. It wouldn’t be TG without it. I’ve never heard of anyone else having it so it is a family bond.

The pictures on your recipes are amazing! I read your posts for those almost as much as for the recipes! 🙂 Anyway… My favorite things to eat during the winter holidays is sweet stuff! Every year, my oldest niece and I bring out a small stack of new dessert recipes to try while we are visiting my folks. They are are such an appreciative audience to experiment with! Also, since it’s a large gathering of family, I usually make my ‘famous’ seafood gumbo sometime during the week.

I’m a sucker for garlic red potato mashed potatoes. And cranberry sauce, too. Thanksgiving means having an abundance of both afterward, which is pretty much awesome. 🙂 I think I want to try the sweet potato rolls this year, though!

I had so many answers. First being turkey, so this knife would be great to show off carving it!:) But I’m reading all these comments and I’m really glad I’ve eaten lunch. Pumpkin pie? Pecan? Cold turkey sandwiches with too much mayo? Mashed potatoes? Ugh! I’m dying over here! Yum.

My favorite thing to eat during the holidays? Christmas breakfast. When I was little, we used to go all out for Christmas breakfast. Bacon, ham, sausage, biscuts with regular gravy and tomato gravy(one of my most favorite things ever!), eggs cooked any and every way, jellies, jams, juices… The list goes on.

My favorite thing to eat? Hmmm… do I have to pick just one? Thanksgiving pie, Christmas ham, New Year’s sushi… not to mention all the sweets and goodies in between! I think if I had to pick an absolute favorite, it would be hot chocolate throughout the holiday season. I love the chill in the air, with a hot mug of hot chocolate in hand, especially when eaten with a freshly baked good. Yum!

Now if only this Southern California weather would cool down, so we could feel like it’s the holidays!

I’m so glad you’ve been able to re-create your posts, even if it took a bit of work to get the pictures in! I can’t imagine how stressful losing all of that would be!! My favorite thing to eat: pumpkin pie. hands down. I love the stuff.

I look forward to my mom’s stuffing. I try to write down the recipe every year but she just tastes and adds and I can never keep up with amounts. My mom always has to make 2 batches. One for Thanksgiving day and one for my brother and I to take home leftovers.

Oh, so many favorite foods! Apple pie. My mom’s stuffing. Sweet potatoes (which strangely we only ever had for Thanksgiving). I guess mostly we ate traditional foods during the holidays, but they were very special to us because we never got them at any other time.

I’m sad I couldn’t post earlier. Now there are a million bajillion responses, and OH! how I want that knife! I’ve recently begun cooking dinner every! single! night! and a good knife would make me feel complete – and make my task so much more rewarding.

My favorite thing to eat during the holidays is my grandmother’s Tortellini en Brodo. It is fabulous and the whole family come crawling back for more. She serves it with these yummy sausage and pepperoni rolls. Yum! I am hungry now!

roasted sweet potatoes with butter or sour cream… my family doesn’t care for them or pumpkin pie or mashed potatoes so thanksgiving has become adventure day, always something new except for the turkey and the gravy and the boxed stuffing, this year we’re having ‘forbidden rice with pecans and cherries’, curried sweet potato with spinach (for me and my friend) sherry cake, turnip puff, thanks to this website it’s delicious, and leeks with garbanzos and pancetta christine

My absolute favorite dish on Thanksgiving has been mashed sweet potatoes.. I tried these about 4 years ago and I haven’t converted the whole family to them yet so I still make the old fashioned mashers also. But mashed sweet potatoes are delish.

My aunt made this special kind of squash pie – I say squash because she didn’t like using plain pumpking, she would mix the puree with acorn, butternut, whatever was on hand. It was a delicious and appeared without fail during the holidays.

I love almost any and all side dishes when it comes to the holidays. I would skip the turkey if it were up to me. My mom always makes an incredible mushroom casserole during the holidays. Boy – this knife would come in handy to cut the ‘shrooms.

Hmmmmm……my favorite thing to eat during the holidays is whatever I make for dessert. Sometimes a Torte en Croute, sometimes a rich slab of Chocolate Pate, or a perfectly buttery pear tart. Sugar is the way to my happy holiday plate!

I’m sure that I wrote brilliantly before :} but that knife would look so pretty in my kitchen on the dark granite tiles!!! I love my mom’s stuffing (none of that fancy stuff!) but this year my dh’s aunt is bringing hers… so I might have to make a little dish for leftovers on the weekend! sorry about your blog snafu.

Every year i wait until independences day in Mexico, around this time there is “Chiles en Nogada” time. They are Jalapenos stuffed with ground meet and membrillo(not exactly sure how to translate this) with a with sauce that include a type of nut call nogada and then pomegranate on top. It a great dish to eat, usually sold quite expensive on restaurants, but not that complicated to do, also has all the Mexican colors.

i like eating just about everything, but i’m looking forward to leftovers. i know that sounds weird, but i usually do thanksgiving and the next day is always the best- i wake up early and do all of the dishes before my husband wakes up and then for breakfast i make a turkey and stuffing sandwich and then maybe have a slice of apple pie – everything tastes so much better the next day, and its almost like i’m eating it for the first time since usually i’m so busy with cooking and serving on thanksgiving!

My holiday favorite is something of a family thing… We do a borscht, but it’s not the typical beet-based soup. Ours is a dairy-based soup, which I’ve heard called “white borscht”. Chop up Polska kielbasa and hard-boiled egg into a bowl, and ladle over a hot soup made with butter, sour cream, white pepper, and horseradish. It’s rich and warm, for those cold winter days.

I am glad you managed to restore your recipes! I love your blog a lot!

Two days ago I tried your apple gallete (which turned out fantastic and it was soo easy!) and the pizzas! I really enjoy your explanations and pictures! I would love to be able to picture my food in such a nice way!!

I try to ring the changes a bit during the holiday season and not stick to the old traditional dishes. My new favourite holiday dish is a lighter alternative to the British Christmas pudding: individual mini ginger puddings with a yummy caramel and ginger sauce poured over them.

What a beautiful knife! Your blog is great, I am following you on twitter. My favorite holiday food I look forward to eating is my mother’s stuffing this Thanksgiving! I am sooooo looking forward to that day.

Sounds like a great recipe and I could use a great knife. All of mine are from the combo packs at the stores. My Favorite holiday food is my Mom’s stuffing, which is actually more a dressing I guess. A 9×13 pan of that cooking is the BEST, especially as cold left overs.